How Normal People Are Winning On YouTube In 2026

So, super normal people are blowing up on YouTube left and right right now. And this kind of reminds me of how YouTube used to be when I first started watching it. Basically, everyone on YouTube was just somebody like, you know, making funny videos uh in their bedroom or maybe they'd make some funny videos while they're walking around somewhere or something like that. It was just very chill and and very normal how people were kind of making videos and interacting with uh everyone else on YouTube and it was very raw. It was very authentic and you really felt like you got to know the person. And there's been a few channels that have sort of stayed that way. I think one example is uh Penguin Zero. He's kind of always had that very raw authentic uh type video style. He does either no editing or very minimal editing. And he's been popular for a very, very long time. I think he started pretty close to the beginning of when, you know, YouTube started or at least when it started blowing up and people started actually making money from it. Um, and he's just been the same way the whole time. But a lot of other YouTubers, uh, have gone into more of the retention editing style, uh, especially a few years back, like Mr. style and uh that worked pretty well for them for a long time. But things are changing now. Uh let's kind of talk about why things are changing and what they're changing to and what you can do to blow up on YouTube significantly easier now uh than pretty much ever before. Right? So basically uh the reason why things are changing is because one people are kind of tired of the crazy retention editing and just the dopamine editing and just like every 5 seconds there's a new edit and there's a new sound and there's something happening. It's just it's just too much, right? People can't handle that. It it's just there comes a point where you just can't put any more edits. there can't be any more dopamine fit into um you know the the video and that's it right you just can't do anymore and so that's one thing the second thing is with the influx of AI content and let's be honest a lot of it is AI slap content trust is at an all-time low and pretty much everyone thinks that everyone else is probably using AI to write their scripts they're possibly even using AI to make their videos and in general they just don't feel like it's coming from another human being, right? They do not feel like it's raw. They do not feel like it's authentic and it's just pretty much a uh a bad vibe, right? So, that's another reason why this style of video is doing so well. Additionally, the third reason is right now YouTube has been see it seem it seems to have either been pushing I'm not sure if it's purposeful or if this is just something that happened with the algorithm but it seems to have been pushing older creators um creators that aren't necessarily young like you know teenagers or early 20s like um has traditionally been the most popular people on YouTube right um It's starting to push older creators. And I think that there's many different reasons for this. One, the people who grew up watching YouTube are getting older themselves. Uh, and then two, now this could be a little bit of a conspiracy theory. I I can't say 100%, but basically older viewers have more money and therefore advertisers are willing to spend more money to get in front of the older viewers, right? And so therefore, it makes sense with YouTube, like YouTube is probably not going to get that many more eyeballs because they already have pretty much all the eyeballs in the world. So the only way for them to make more money as a company is to get uh make more money per viewer. And so they're really starting to push content that appeals to older viewers. And of course, older viewers do not like the crazy retention editing style. That's that's like very repellent to them. they like more chill um realistic like almost feels like they're talking to another human being type style just like this video. Right? So those are some of the the main reasons why it's happening and my it to be fair it's like my hypothesis I can't 100% prove that that's true. With that being said I have like my 50-year-old brother for instance blew up with relatively simple style. Now to be fair there was a little bit of editing in his videos but nothing crazy. Um some of my other clients like R.J. J, for instance, he's an older creator. Um, he blew up, made like $28,000 in his second month with a very simple style as well. My brother was making $214 a day. Literally one month after posting his first video, his first video blew up to over 800,000 views. So, I'm seeing this happen over and over again with my clients, with other creators that I know. It's just it's just this incredibly common occurrence now where you see people absolutely blowing up with this raw authentic style. And so the next thing that you should know is uh why other benefits to this style? Well, one thing is it's just significantly easier to make a video. So just as an example, this is pretty accessible to everyone, right? So this is a iPhone right here. Um I'm not using any lighting. I'm not using anything fancy. And to be completely honest with you, like the lighting is is not great cuz the lighting would be coming in here. So if with a normal camera, I would actually like I would be very dark, right? It would be very difficult to light my face. But the iPhone camera is just smart enough that it just automatically knows to light my face correctly. Like if you if you ever like used a camera and and you're into film at all, you know exactly what I'm talking about. Um, we tried lighting this exact background, for instance, with a uh Sony A7S3 and um, it was hard. Let me just put it that way. We had a $3,000 light on this side, a $5,000 light on this side, and my face was still way too dark. But the iPhone just does it automatically, which is incredible, right? So, of course, there are ways to light it with fancy cameras, or else nobody would ever film outside, but it is very, very difficult. and then you know the sun might change, a cloud might come out and all of a sudden your lighting is messed up, right? So that really sucks. Uh but the iPhone it just does it automatically. So it makes making video significantly easier because all you have to do is have a phone. And by the way, this isn't even like the the newest and best iPhone, right? There's like other better newer iPhones out there. Pretty much any phone within like the last three years, you should be good, right? Um iPhone, Samsung, Google Pixel, etc. anything within the last 3 years uh and you should be good. And even before then, you're probably going to be fine as well. You know, just as an example, I know one like one of my favorite YouTube channels, I think he's probably one of the best storytellers I've ever seen, Mr. Ballin. He grew his YouTube channel, I believe, to about 5 million subscribers or more with just an iPhone, right? Just an iPhone making long form videos. He grew his YouTube channel to 5 million subscribers or more before he ever got a nice camera, right? So, you really do not need a super fancy setup to make this work. Plus, it's super easy. Now, the next thing I'm going to mention is something that is really unique to me and it's one of the reasons why I've been able to get so many different people results on YouTube, either with a raw authentic style on this or with a minimalist editing style or even with more editing as well. It really just depends on what they want. You know, some people like to edit, right? But this is the real reason why I've been able to get so many people results. And that is you focus on the idea. The idea is the thing that will make or break your video. More than anything else, the idea is going to make or break your video. And so for that reason, uh it's very important for you to focus on idea. Um if you have a good idea, everything else can be mediocre with your video as long as it meets a certain threshold, right? It's not terrible. Just as an example, your audio has to be okay, right? Your your audio doesn't have to be incredible, but it has to be okay. If your audio is bad, people are probably not going to watch your video. But as long as it meets that certain minimum threshold of being okay and the idea is good, your video has a very high probability of doing well. However, if your idea is bad, [snorts] everything else can be unbelievable and your video has a very low probability of doing well. It's just that simple, right? And so knowing that, knowing that the idea is the most important thing that you need to know that will make or break your video, you should just simply be optimizing for trying out as many ideas as you can. And once you find those winning ideas, those ideas where you can post again and again on your channel about them, that is when you want to double down and then potentially consider doing a little bit more editing. But because to be fair, like especially with a how-to video, it's kind of nice to do a little bit of editing. You might want to have a screenshot pop up, you know, something that actually adds value to the video, right? You know, for instance, when I mentioned like Zach earlier, my brother Zach, or when I mentioned my client, it would be nice to have a little screenshot of them pop up. That's not going to happen, unfortunately, in this video. Maybe in the editing process, I can kind of like, you know, put some We'll see. We'll see. I I don't think that's going to happen in this video cuz just because I'm doing this to illustrate that. Um, but yeah, you know, simple minimalist editing where, you know, might take 5 10 minutes to edit the video max. That is the way to go when it comes to discovering the winning ideas. Okay. Now, once you discover those winning ideas, you can continue to make simple minimalist editing. Maybe maybe edit a little bit more or you can double down and optimize uh and and start editing uh spending more time on the editing process because you want to make those videos better, right? Oh, that's awesome. Wow. Flock of birds over there. Very cool. So, um, uh, that's when you make a decision. But you do not want to optimize. You don't you do not want to do retention editing or or heavy editing when you haven't figured out that you've got a winning idea. When you are trying different ideas out and you're seeing if the audience actually likes it, right? You don't want to optimize then because you're basically optimizing for something that doesn't work. It's kind of like putting steak sauce and salt and pepper on a rotten steak. It doesn't matter if you put steak sauce and salt and pepper and and you know, put put the perfect butter on it and and cook it just the right way, it's still a rotten steak, right? It it doesn't work, you know. But if you put steak and salt and pepper um and butter on a steak that is pretty good already, you can actually make it even better. That's optimizing, right? That's what optimizing is. You take something that's already good and you make it even better. But you can't optimize until you have something that's good in the first place. And that is why it's just such a good idea to make sure to keep your videos relatively simple and relatively minimalist until you find a winning idea, until you find something that people actually care about that they care specifically. They care about what you have to say about the subject, right? And so that is my message to you. You know, I have so many different examples of clients that where they've blown up with this like minimalist or sometimes even no editing style. Um, and they're absolutely crushing it uh with with these types of videos. And they're really easy to make. They only take I mean this video is it said 12 minutes right now. You can watch the timer. So, it's taken me literally about 12 minutes. And then I took about 1 minute to write down a few little notes here on a on a flash card. And that's about it. And I'm probably not going to edit this video at all. It's probably going to be, you know, completely unedited. And by the way, I will have a live training. Click the link in the description in the pin comment below. Um, and uh, basically on this live training, I'll be telling you what to do on YouTube, what not to do on YouTube, what I did in order to make eight figures on YouTube, and um, basically a very easy step-by-step process to actually grow a YouTube channel in the right way that's sustainable, a YouTube channel where you can actually make money from it. Um, and aka it's sustainable. It's not just a hobby where you're pouring a bunch of time and effort into it and you're never actually going to make money. And additionally, you're helping other people. You're actually solving problems in the world. If you want to know how to make a YouTube channel like that, then click that link in the description uh and the pin comment below. And also check out this video right here to see one of my clients who had a ton of success. And I'll see you next time.